Pulwama chargesheet: 350 voice samples, ₹10 lakh and Pak hand written all over it
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet running into more than 13,000 pages pieces together various evidence, including 350 voice messages, to nail Pakistan-based individuals who orchestrated the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019 killing at least 40 CRPF troopers.
NIA sources said since most of the data from a mobile phone of a suspect had been removed, it took a lot of time to retrieve it and sift through it for 14 long hours. A few voice messages of the initial few months when a terrorist, Umar Farooq, infiltrated into Kashmir were lost, but all the pictures were retrieved.
The terror group, mainly Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), shared among the perpetrators not only the attack video for propaganda but also information on finances and the movement of fighter aircraft post-Balakot airstrike by Indian Air Force.
The money trail
The chargesheet cites one of the chats in which Mohammed Umer Farooq, nephew of Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar, asks Rouf Asgar and Ammar Alvi, brothers of Azhar, for money to be deposited in a bank account in Pakistan to finance the attack. The probe agency said ₹10 lakh was deposited in two accounts in the name of Umer Farooq in Allied Bank and Meezan Bank of Pakistan. This money is later brought to Kashmir through illegal financial networks to fund the attack.
In another chat, it is revealed that from this fund, ₹5.7 lakh is spent on preparing two IEDs (improvised explosive devices), later fitted in a Maruti Eeco vehicle. Pulwama resident Adil Ahmed Dar drove this vehicle and exploded it near a CRPF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway to a deadly impact.
Meticulous planning
The terrorists were meticulous in estimating the cost of each component of the IEDs and the money spent in executing the attack. The chat, in Urdu, puts the cost of the IEDs at “₹5,70,000”. Along with the RDX brought on previous trips, the terrorists packed 35 kg of RDX with ammonium nitrate, gelatine sticks and aluminium powder into two IEDs, weighing 160 kg and 40 kg, respectively.
Rouf Asgar is also heard asking Umar Farooq about the movement of Indian fighter aircraft following the Balakot airstrikes on February 26, 2019. India took out a Jaish base in Balakot, inside Pakistan.
NIA sources said the voice messages exchanged between the terrorists and their Jaish handlers in Pakistan are largely from the period preceding the attack.
Attack on BBC journalists
Masood Azhar’s nephew Mohammad Umar Farooq wanted to target BBC journalists who had gone to the residence of suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar to interview his father Ghulam Hassan Dar, said the NIA chargesheet.
The NIA refers to a February 21, 2019 conversation between Umar Farooq and his Pakistan-based uncle Ammar Alvi, in which he sought permission to target the BBC journalists.
Alvi denied the permission, asking Farooq to “cherish the success of Pulwama attack for now”, according to the chargesheet.
Sources say since the entire network operated from Pakistan, it will help India to expose it to a greater length before the Financial Action Task Force where Pakistan is desperately trying to avoid blacklisting.
